A local politician elected in the southern Japan city of Oita in February has been banned from council meetings for refusing to take off his full-face wrestling mask.

Skull Reaper A-ji won just 2,828 votes in the election, campaigning on a platform demanding educational reform and improved social welfare facilities, but that was sufficient for him to take a seat in the city council.

But even before he could attend his first meeting, other councillors suggested that it was inappropriate for a member of the assembly to wear a mask to conceal their identity.

But 44-year-old Skull Reaper A-ji resisted their requests that he remove his trademark item of clothing, a red-and-black leather mask similar to the “lucha libre” masks affected by wrestlers in Mexico.